7.4.14

While
internet offers uncountable options, fashion is
experiencing a uniformity of taste.

Internet
has liberated fashion in a way that fashion cannot even liberate itself. This
very moment is the time when fashion bloggers are applauded for their style
mastery, when #ootd (stands for outfit of the day) hashtag will guarantee more
likes than book-related photos in Instagram and when fashion week has gradually
lost its relevance. Take an example from how easy it is for people to tune in
style.com and other websites to see the latest collection looks and even
live-stream the runway shows.

If we are
to list internet influences on liberating fashion, a logical path we are
supposed to find is a more diverse fashion scene, where people get a platform
to express their individualities and brands are able to engage the consumers
personally. And at a glimpse, that is indeed what happens. Most notably marked
with the birth of fashion bloggers and online shopping behavior, fashion
appears to let go of its exclusivity factor and comes out as a royalty ready to
mingle. (disclosure: as a matter of fact, as I’m writing this piece, I cannot
keep my fingers from changing tabs to several blogs) Internet has become such a
warmhearted playground for those whose wardrobe is too outrageous or those who
want to channel their “creativity” outside the real life. The world wide web with its
gargantuan space thus welcomes innumerable takes on fashion.

But,
really, is that what happens?

Yes,
bloggers get the chance to show off their individual style, but are their
styles any different? Counting how many similar products the bloggers have can
tell you better. Yes, we all can upload our “outfit of the day,” but are our
outfits strikingly different? Your Instagram filter can perhaps illustrate
better. This so-called democracy of fashion, it turns out, brings an anonymity
and uniformity of taste.

What I’d
like to address with "boringness" in fashion and style accounts to our
unhappiness to the innumerable choices. Or at least, that is what the internet
entities think we feel. Thus every day we are offered chances to “curate” what
we see through who we’re following on social media channels, which websites we
are subscribed to, and even we can handpick whose feeds we will be presented
with upon signing in to Facebook. With these whole additional and more diverse
options, people start to filter and choose who they want to be exposed with.
And by the end of the day, once you read or view the same thing on a regular
basis, you become that thing.

After all,
maybe uniformity in fashion isn’t entirely dangerous so the designers can
predict better what each customer likes. And to us? The uniformity can bring in more likes for our #ootd
posts because we can easily predict what kind of photo the majority likes. Henceforth, I’d like to welcome you to the future of online fashion. The future that
believes in “minimalism” and “nineties” as evident on the latest runway of a
lot of major fashion houses, the future that encourages commercialism but
forgets to celebrate diversity. The future that casts out your individual style
statement. The future you may not belong to.